Samsung SA850 on PLS 24" - Test and Review (what you have been waiting for)

oops, I thought it was the 27" version.

Looking forward to a review of the real 850.
 
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Basically everything I was expecting it to be. A very interesting monitor and an excellent alternative to IPS, only if it wasn't for the terrible backlight bleeding. What a shame, the monitor looks very well built otherwise. Thanks for posting the review.
 
wow nice job on the review. I'll be doing something similar on the 27" version this week. Expect similar conclusions, but who knows?
 
albovin said:
Does it affect photos, movies, games?
Not at all.
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Please don't confuse readers, this is wrong. Aggressive AG coating affects all light colors+whites. Movies like Dead Snow and popular games like Bad Company 2 which are filled with snowy set pieces and deserts are greatly affected by LG's AG coating.

Oled said:
"Responsiveness
Measured input lag vs CRT ~9-10 ms"!
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This value is wrong, not that it matters given how low it is. You do realize you are posting positive comments about a 16:10 monitor right?

Evi1d33d said:
The backlight bleed killed it.
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In a brightly lit room the bleeding won't matter given the reflective nature of the semi-glossy coating.
 
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^^^This^^^

Such a shame. I was holding out hope for this one, but the backlight bleed is rubbish.

I hope the NEC P241W-BK will be released soon.
 
how com they release faulty technology like that?
Even not quality conscious consumer would return such monitor with such annoyingly looking backlight bleed... :(
 
Albovin, thanks for your review of this display. I always trust your reviews to be thorough and informative. Thumbs up!
 
Contrast ratio is around 800 which is much better than the pre-production figures. Is 800 good enough?
 
In this monitor's defense, putting it up against the more expensive, and no longer available 2490 was a bad judgment and stacking the odds against it. Unless we can buy the alternative, it is rather irrelevant to a consumer. With that said, I can't see this exact monitor being manufactured for very long. It will sell initially, but the return rate will be astronomical. Samsung is probably well on their way into the design of a back lit LED PLS panel.
 
Thanks for the review!

The S24A850DW appears to be aimed at the professional market but yet suffers from low end IPS problems. :confused:

It's like a 10 year old kid dressed in his dad's Armani suit. Samsung needs to go all out for the intended market or not bother at all.

What confuses me the most is that the Samsung engineers and product managers have known about these issues for probably a year (perhaps more) but yet they still approve its mass production and sale? Don't they have R&D frequenting the [H]ard|Forum monitor section day & night?
 
alienate said:
In this monitor's defense, putting it up against the more expensive, and no longer available 2490 was a bad judgment and stacking the odds against it. Unless we can buy the alternative, it is rather irrelevant to a consumer. With that said, I can't see this exact monitor being manufactured for very long. It will sell initially, but the return rate will be astronomical. Samsung is probably well on their way into the design of a back lit LED PLS panel.
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I think placing the Samsung S24A850DW next to the NEC 2490WUXi was fair. Samsung were initially quite bold with those portable test unit comparisons, their monitor chassis plus stand as well as their marketing posters suggested high-end markets, and people have been waiting really long with high-hopes.

Not having the NEC 2490WUXi to purchase is not an issue, it's about whether or not I'm going to buy the S24A850DW. And if not, then I'll naturally do my due diligence on other monitors which are available. :)
 
albovin said:
The review of the Samsung SA850 on PLS (24" model) has been published.

Enjoy.
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Thanks for that Albovin. Good job.

The video showed the bleed in a way I can understand. Knowing my 2690 black levels being similar, and comparing, the bleed on the Samsung is pretty horrendous. Too bad.

Walker said:
You do know this is the 24" version, with, you know, that aspect ratio :eek:
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LOL, now he has to run, run away.

XoR said:
how com they release faulty technology like that?
Even not quality conscious consumer would return such monitor with such annoyingly looking backlight bleed... :(
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You'd be surprised what people look for when they buy new screens. Usually they look for nothing. Only that .5% of people that come here would do the dark room or dead pixel test and shriek in horror at the $400.00 to $500.00 they just spent.

But this is not a cheap screen so I would hope people would have an eye for these types of things. And a lighter anti-glare would not be a great selling factor versus the Dell power house IPS screens.
 
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ok I've just got mine setup, for about 10 minutes...but reports of backlight bleed have been either greatly exagerated, or we don't have a large enough sample size to make an accurate call. I've got very minor bleed in the lower right hand corner of my monitor, which while not desirable, is what i consider within the bounds of normal/acceptable. Since my previous monitor was a u2711 (which my wife is now using, I'll probably make comparison's to that. Without any extensive testing a couple things i can say based off first impression:

1. much lighter/compact. cleaner look imo.
2. bezel on top/sides is 13/16".
3. stand is smaller, yet more fluid than u2711. Already love the stand.
4. connection positions on the back much easier to get to than previous monitors.
5. very subdued tiny blue light when monitor is on.
 
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conscript said:
ok I've just got mine setup, for about 10 minutes...but reports of backlight bleed have been either greatly exagerated, or we don't have a large enough sample size to make an accurate call.
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More than one person has posted pictures of the backlight bleed, so I think we can discount any claims of exaggeration. Obviously, it is a subjective call, but I for one am very hesitant after seeing the images and videos. When you can, would you mind posting pictures of yours so that we can judge for ourselves?
 
Samsung could of done a better job for a professional monitor. The build quality is very cheap. Yet they go all out for a gamers display using a TN panel.
 
waiting for night so i can get some backlight pictures without any ambient light...will have them up later. I am very please with this monitor so far, and glad i took a flyer on it. I'll be gaming a bit on it tonight, which will be the real test.
 
the camera definitely accentuates it...it's not perceptible at all on a page like [H]


backlightsa850002.jpg
 
conscript said:
the camera definitely accentuates it...it's not perceptible at all on a page like [H]
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What you should do is just circle the area(s) that you can see bleed when you look at the screen yourself. That helps give people an idea of what it actually perceptible.
 
Oled hates 16:10 because some games don't support 16:10 so you end up with black bars.

I don't care, however, currently there are no 16:10 monitor I would buy since they are all IPS with low contrast+aggressive AG coating, slow TN panels or overpriced PLS panels with poor QC.
 
NCX said:
Oled hates 16:10 because some games don't support 16:10 so you end up with black bars.
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What games are those? I have never seen a PC game that supported 16:9 but not 16:10.

OLED is quite obsessed with 16:9, but there doesn't actually seem much rational behind it.
 
To all "thank you": you are most welcome.

This is simply a mouthwatering monitor for this price.
Good BL uniformity seems to be a matter of luck and return policies.

What cocerns me more: colors.

Conscript, thank you for the photo.
But you posted a photo of 27" model.
This thread is about 24".
Thanks anyway.
 
Assassins Creed 1, Shadowrun and a few others. I actually like the black bars if there is no bleeding, I find having them makes gaming more immersive.
 
Wish mine was that free from black light bleed. Looks like glow in the lower right corner. I didn't want to play the BLB lottery. Figured if two monitors had bleed then a majority of them will have it.

I would of kept mine if not for the BLB.
 
Sycraft said:
What you should do is just circle the area(s) that you can see bleed when you look at the screen yourself. That helps give people an idea of what it actually perceptible.
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on a completely black screen with all lights off, i can see the very bottom right hand corner, maybe a square inch. On this website, right now, with all lights off, i can't see it even looking for it.through the taskbar. Guess I got lucky? Or the three people on this board that got them first were unlucky?

Anyway, the bleed certainly isn't anything more perceptible than what I had on my u2711. Raided a full night tonight in rift, no problems, though I wouldn't suspect it. Tomorrow night some fps, we'll see how she holds up to some frames. Also, I haven't even messed with any settings yet. I like ot use default out of the box for a couple days then make adjustments, just to gauge the impact fairly.
 
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Those contrast ratios are excellent - right up there with the apple one with its glossy panel. Those input lag numbers are good as well right? Seems to me if you get lucky and get one without alot of backlight bleeding this is a great monitor..
 
Hi, I've been following the threads for the SA850 for a while now. Right now I'm on the fence between this, the S24A850DW, and the Dell U2412M for $165 less.

From what I've read, this looks like a great monitor (unless you get a panel with bad back-light bleed). Aside from that, and the difference in the Dell AG coating vs the Samsung semi-gloss coating, does anyone have any thoughts about what this might offer over the U2412M in terms of picture quality and response times? I am new to the technical details of monitor comparison, and there is limited information about the SA580, so a more practical comparison would be very helpful.

Also, I know a lot of people in the U2412M thread said their panel had back-light bleed that settled to acceptable levels within a week. Could this monitor undergo a similar effect?
 
albovin said:
This is simply a mouthwatering monitor for this price.
Good BL uniformity seems to be a matter of luck and return policies.

What cocerns me more: colors.
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for it's price I would rather get Asus PA246Q... though it have hard AG coating and for multimedia semi-glare will be much better...

as for colors is there anything to worry about really? image look oversaturated and/or hue changes like on "wide-gamut"? or is image just little more vibrant than on other monitors but still within "sRGB look"? if latter then it's colors should be more in pros rather in cons :rolleyes:
 
another-user said:
the only game i know off that does that is The Last Remnant.
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Bad company 2, Starcraft 2, Test drive 2..

its not that you cant run them, but you have too choose from fullscreen at native 16:10 resolution and loose some information or run a lower 16:9 with black bars.
 
XoR said:
for it's price I would rather get Asus PA246Q... though it have hard AG coating and for multimedia semi-glare will be much better...

as for colors is there anything to worry about really? image look oversaturated and/or hue changes like on "wide-gamut"? or is image just little more vibrant than on other monitors but still within "sRGB look"? if latter then it's colors should be more in pros rather in cons :rolleyes:
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It has "sRGB look" + oversaturated blue.
For example, the blue sky is "chemical blue".
This concerns me more than the BL issue.
The BL issue can be corrected "just" by improving assembly quality and QC.

Color issues are usually a much more complex problem and more difficult to correct.

That's the only thing that prevents me from recommending this monitor.

Given correct colors and uniform BL, this monitor woud have competed at least for #2 position in 24" sector for consumers.
It's very unfortunate that is hasn't happen.:mad:

Samsung has never been so close to Olympus.
In that imaginary scenario SA850 would simply cancel Dell, Asus, HP, etc. (24" NEC for more demanding consumers and SA850 for "the rest of the world") ...
 
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for its price there should be srgb emulation like on asus i mentioned or dell u2410 and then slightly wider gamut would be nice feature actually.

i think this monitor could use "digital vibrance" functionality as it expand not only blue but red and green also so decreasing it could remedy somewhat oversaturation
 
Someone should make a photo of the SA850 against a U2711, all U2711s I owned had crappy blacks in dark rooms because of the IPS white glow. I think those who are posting that IPS black levels are better haven't seen any 27" IPS display in a dark room. It's true that some SA850s have backlight bleeding in addition to the white glow, but the main issue is still the white glow that both PLS and IPS have, and as PLS doesn't suffer from AG-coating, there's really no reason to go for an IPS panel instead.
 
conscript said:
the camera definitely accentuates it...it's not perceptible at all on a page like [H]
http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/8721/backlightsa850002.jpg
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Doubtful. That is one of the shortest exposures I have seen for BLB shot, like you are trying to play it down.

We really need a standard shot exposure when trying to compare BLB.

When I took a shot of my NEC when new. I used 1 full second. You used 1/8 of second.
Here is my one second shot:
http://img374.imageshack.us/img374/111/1secdarkaj3.jpg

I would suggest a standard shot might be something like this:

Monitor brightness 140 cd/m2 (Common recommendation that most monitors can reach).

Then something like ISO 100, F2.8, 1 Second exposure.

Or you can use this exposure calculator set to 20 LUX (Fireworks, Christmas lights) to match alternate settings:
http://www.calculator.org/calculate-online/photography/exposure.aspx

With max brightness, minimum brightness, long exposures, short exposures. These shots are meaningless for any kind of comparison. Make a standard shot then you have a basis for comparison.
 
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